I was there last November. It's every bit as impressive but scary/dangerous in person.

Incredibly windy. The trees, such as they are, have grown permanently bent by the wind. In places, the path that you can see in the background runs much closer to the edge than it appears in the photo. The railings like in the foreground are few and far between.

I could not imagine turning my back to the cliff much less simultaneously fumbling with a camera.

Not sure of accuracy but I read that their young children were taking photos of them, so not actually selfies. Also not necessarily a foolish action, although they must not have been in a safe position to do so.

And MarkW: that is a very stupid rule. You can lose your balance and actually need to move your feet. Keeping your mental focus on planting your feet could be the worst thing you could do, in certain situations.

"The word 'tragic' is often misused in news reports of deaths, as pedants like to observe, but I think this one is correct."

Hmmm, a lawprof dismissing an insistence on the correct use of frequently misused words as pedantry. Awesome (another frequently misused word but let's not be pedantic).

But the accusation of pedantry is only half right. The pedantry comes in when a stickler refuses to acknowledge new and well established uses for old words. 'Tragic' is certainly one of those. Its most common meaning today is just a sad event, with the sadness perhaps (as here) heightened by the event's being out of the ordinary. So, there may be some pedantry on display, but it doesn't arise from the misuse of a word so much as a fusty preference for the out-dated rather than the contemporary.

The tragedy is further compounded by the fact that the Mail didn't post the selfie. Here's a young couple that died for their art, and yet their art is kept hidden. A true artist works close to the horns. This selfie was undoubtedly illustrative of the transience of our existence and the lurking horror that lies just beneath the most banal moments of our existence. This selfie deserves mounting in the Louvre, but, in a final, biting comment on the futility of our existence, it's not even published in the Mail.

"The hero's suffering, however, is not gratuitous because through great suffering the hero is enlightened. Such heroes learn about themselves and their place in the universe. Pride is chastened. Though destroyed the hero is at peace intellectually."-- http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/santorar/engl190v/trag.hero.htm

"Aristotle says that.... In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition (anagnorisis--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ) about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle quite nicely terms this sort of recognition "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate." -- http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.html

"And MarkW: that is a very stupid rule. You can lose your balance and actually need to move your feet."

Um, OK, sorry, the people I know who I've told it to (friends and kids) aren't as literally minded as you seem to be (and thank god for that or raising my kids would been much harder).

They understood the rule (correctly) to mean that when you're around cliffs and other dangerous things, remember not to back up 'just a little' while looking through the viewfinder to get a better angle. Instead, lower the camera, move, and then look again.

Sorry, MarkW. I don't think I'm generally inclined to taking things too literally, but perhaps I did that time. Just seemed like your rule was putting the emphasis on the wrong thing (on planting oneself instead of emphasizing awareness of one's location in relation to the cliff.)

But consider that it was a very high cliff and that the mental processes speed up immensely in a situation like this.

So, I think they had time to experience "great suffering" and "enlightenment" "Pride is chastened" — hell, yeah.

"Revelation or recognition… about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods" — that's what I'm thinking. One minute, they were at a peak experience, believing themselves at the top of the world and wanting a picture that would flaunt that greatness to the world, and that very psychological state led to their downfall.

Did they not realize that in the psychic hour it took to reach the conclusion of all thought?

South Rim of the Grand Canyon; I hope the same fate doesn't befall a visitor(s) doing the same thing. Even worse when it is snowy and icy at the edge of the precipice. I hope I never read of someone texting as they walk into the void like Wiley Coyote. Sad story!